Paris – Wearing helmets and protective suits, members of the choir of Notre Dame Cathedral sang for the first time since Paris’s medieval monument last year’s devastating fire for a special Christmas Eve concert.
Accompanied by an acclaimed cellist and a rented organ, the singers performed under the cathedral’s stained glass windows amid the darkened church, which is transforming from a precarious dangerous clean-up operation into a massive reconstruction site. The choir initially planned to bring in 20 singers, but for safety reasons they were limited to eight.
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The choir members were socially removed to be able to take off their masks – which are needed indoors in France to prevent the spread of the virus – and to sing.
The concert – including “Silent Night” in English and French, “The Hymn of the Angels” and even “Jingle Bells” – was recorded earlier this month and broadcast just before midnight on Thursday. The public was not allowed in and is not expected to see the inside of Notre Dame until 2024.
The diocese called it a “highly symbolic concert … marked by emotion and hope” and a celebration of a “musical heritage dating back to the Middle Ages”.
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The Archbishop of Paris, Monsignor Michel Aupetit, held Christmas Eve services on Thursday at the Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois church opposite the Louvre in place of Notre Dame.
The Notre Dame Choir gave 60 concerts a year in the cathedral, but has since been touring and moving between other Parisian churches.
The April 2019 fire consumed the cathedral’s lead roof and destroyed the spire, and it wasn’t until earlier this month that workers finally stabilized the site enough to begin rebuilding.
